We started off by helping the Lui's finish up fixing their house from the flood. We got to paint the walls which was a lot of fun! Then on Tuesday we had new missionary orientation #2! I can't believe it's already been a month since Elder Dehlin got here. That's crazy! We went to where we thought new missionary orientation was but we got there about five minutes early and the gate to the church was locked and there were no cars there. We figured we probably had the wrong building. We eventually found out that it was clear up at the Westwood building! That's all the way up at the top of the mission by the temple. So we hopped on the 405 and crawled through morning traffic and were extremely late to the meeting. We got to the meeting and it was the exact same new missionary orientation that I had after I had been to at the beginning of my mission! The same topics were spoken about the same trainings were given it was all the same! I loved it! It was fun to remember back to when I was going through it the first time! My favorite part was doing the trainings that I thought were really hard at the beginning of my mission and then doing them now and seeing how much easier they have become! It was a lot of fun! It eventually ended and we were driving back to our area and got about half way there and realized Elder Dehlin left his bag back at the Westwood building! So we stopped at a Ramen House for lunch (and had a sweet Ferrari park next to us) and then we turned around and went back up to Santa Monica to get his bag. It was an eventful day!
I also had one of the best exchanges I've had yet on my mission on wednesday. My district leader came into my area and spent a day with me. I'm not sure how much I've said about my district leader Elder Hwang. Probably nothing. But he is INCREDIBLE!!! Super smart and an out of this world missionary! To give you an idea of the kind of genius he is, he is a professional cello player, spent 2 months messing around trying to figure out how to play piano and is now the best piano player I've ever seen, and he is going to study nuclear physics in college and wants to work for the Navy. He ultimately wants to contribute to ending world hunger by providing electricity to the parts of the world that don't have it by figuring out fusion energy. Yeah he's a genius. And he is just as smart in the gospel too. He basically has the scriptures memorized and can quote them on demand. I asked him a lot of questions about the gospel on our exchange and he would quote me some scriptures off the top of his head and share insights from books he's read and give me some amazing answers. I learned so much from going on exchanges with him! It was so great and I hope I can do it again before he heads home.
We also got to do lots of service again this week! We helped a non member in Palos Verdes move from one incredible house to another. His view was crazy cool. We also helped plant trees around Palos Verdes at land conservation sites.
My favorite day of the week, even after all these great days, was sunday! Yesterday was so great! In Samoan sacrament meeting I was just pondering because the talks were given in Samoan so I couldn't understand. I was just thinking about the Gospel and I thought to myself "I wish it was fast Sunday so I could get up and share my testimony." Well at the end of sacrament meeting a member of the Lomita ward bishopric came up to us and said, "Elders I have a problem! I need a speaker!" I was like yes!! I can do it! So my wish came true and I was able to give a talk in the English sacrament meeting! It was great! I spoke on the Plan of Salvation and faith in Jesus Christ. Then after Church an investigator of ours text us and told us he had the flu and couldn't do our lesson that night. But, we were able to do a texting lesson with him and it was so cool! His name is N__ and even though he had the flu he kept his commitment and read 3 Nephi 11. He read it and loved it! He also prayed and had a strong confirmation of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon!! It was so great to hear! He said he had a comforting presence come around him and his days since then have just seemed brighter!! We are so happy for him! Later we went to give a blessing to a member who was injured at work. We talked with him and his family and found out that he served a 9 year service mission!! They love missionaries and at one point had almost every missionary in the Zone over to their house for a dinner! They are incredible and have had some amazing experiences. They know so many people in the area and gave us about 30 referrals!!! Like I said, yesterday was the best day ever!
Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes and for all you do! You're the best!
Have a great week!
-Elder Burgon
Elder Dehlin's email:
Again, sorry these are so long, I just write them cause I may or may not be keeping a journal so this is all my prosperity is gonna get.
I painted a house all day, then, at the end of the day, our district leader called and was like "Hey so since you guys have done service for the past two P days I think you should know, if you do service, the Zone leaders will let you extend your P day so it doesnt end at 6," and were like... nice to know, or would have been two weeks ago.
Tuesday:
So once upon a time, I was a new missionary. The End... That is currently.
So today we had New Missionary Orientation #2. As in the first one was the day I got here. We drove all the way east to the building they told us to be in and BAM, gate is locked, but some genius knows the code so I unlocked it. But it still posed the question, why was it locked. The answer came in a text from our AP, elder Jensen. He said and I quote, "ETA?" wtf. What do you mean ETA? Boy I am the freaking lone survivor and his compadre over here, I have literally, LITERALLY not seen another human being within 60 miles of this church building where in the goodness of all things are you? Of course our actual response was a little more like, "oh, haha, what building I think were at the wrong one." Turns out they changed the building to the one twenty minutes north. It also turns out that it was twenty minutes north through the FREAKING MIDDLE OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME!! Anyway, about an hour later we arrived at the actual building and listened to the last 15 minutes of the orientation. Pretty sweet. Nothing else happened.
Wednesday:
My companion went on exchanges with the district leader today. So his companion and I were all by ourselves. They are the Korean Elders so I was a wee bit nervous to not speak to anyone at all. Turns out we just built a fence on the actual greatest view in the world. Palos Verdes. If any of you ever get to go to Palos Verdes, youll know why I say this. This member had a view on a cliffside that looks out over all of Los Angeles, literally the whole city, and its not a small city. So that was pretty neat.
Thursday:
Today we helped a dude move out of his house at Palos Verdes. Yesterday I said that the one lady had the best view of all time, I was wrong. This man had a view of all of the town of Palos Verdes, with the ocean in the background. Tears were shed when we first looked out his massive sliding screen doors leading out to an overlook of some of the nicest homes I have ever seen, plus the ocean... And he was moving out of this house. Why? Ill never know. Some people just wouldnt know quality if it karate chopped them in the face and round house kicked their ancestors back to life. We spent all morning helping him move out, and then into his new (not as nice of a view) house. The member who invited us to help this guy out then bought us all Poke Me. Apparently LA does this thing where they take the worst food (sushi) and turn it into an even worse food (salad). That is what Poke Me is. They take all the stuff you put in sushi and throw it into a bowl, stir it up, and give it to you like you didnt just see that tunas heart still beating. Why California, why do you ruin everything. The End.
Friday:
Yet another wise words from Hwang district meeting. Grandmaster Hwang (our DL) taught us about Judgement today. Basically he said that it is impossible to not judge. We have to judge people like who we marry, who were friends with and who we elect for government office and stuff, but we cant judge them permanently, only God can judge if people are a "lost cause," and the only times he really did that were like, Sodom and Gamora, and Noah and stuff. We can only judge people that are going to directly affect our lives, and everyone else, we treat with love and respect, and never treat them worse than yourself. But enough of that stuff, its boring.
Saturday:
We got lit.
Sunday:
Today was fantastic. We had church, which is wonderful as always. Elder Burgon got to give a surprise talk in sacrament meeting which was cool. After that, we came back and got a text from both our appointments for the day. Both cancelled, but one, N__, said he read the chapter we asked him to read. He basically said he read it, prayed to know if it was true, and felt so happy the rest of the day, and wanted us to give him another scripture to read. Pretty cool. After that we ate dinner with an awesome family that gave us enough food to take home that we could feed roughly 13 African kingdoms. We then went to a members house to give a blessing to this guy who got his foot ran over by a forklift. We stayed there talking for like two hours, which I mean, isnt supposed to be the "best use of our time," but I dont really care, we learned about how this guy was a church service missionary for 9 years with 3 mission presidents, and we got some way nice oranges, and got like 30 referrals. Even if we hadnt gotten the referrals, it would have been worth it. Also this guy at church was like, "hey kids come see me after church" all sketchy and stuff so of course we went and saw him. He opened his car, looked around, and then handed us four white shirts...Idk guys, LA is weird. He also has a smiley face pin on his suit every sunday. I mean this guy is in his 50s probably, (hopefully or else I just roasted the crap out of him) and he is walking around with a giant yellow smiley face attached to his suit like he is some circus clown. "Hey squeeze my nose and this pin will spit water into your eyes." That kinda stuff. Good guy tho. His name is Larry Bird, not even a lie.
There you have it, my week, pretty legendary if you ask me, which you are, cause youre reading this email.
-Elder Dehlin
